


remember me i ask, remember me i sing

by IvyOnTheHolodeck



Category: The Penumbra Podcast
Genre: Bittersweet, Drabble, Mood Without Plot, Other
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-12
Updated: 2020-06-12
Packaged: 2021-03-04 07:21:54
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 451
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24659830
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/IvyOnTheHolodeck/pseuds/IvyOnTheHolodeck
Summary: The heart of Juno Steel is a tattered old thing.
Relationships: Juno Steel/Peter Nureyev
Comments: 9
Kudos: 63





	remember me i ask, remember me i sing

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Northisnotup](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Northisnotup/gifts).



> This concept is inspired by SensationalSunburst’s story “Tell-Tale Hearts.” The imagery captured my imagination and wouldn’t let go.

The heart of Juno Steel is a tattered old thing, scarred and cracked and aching. It hangs defiantly from a rawhide thong over the black turtleneck that doesn’t stain when Juno bleeds on it, though Rita insists that’s no way to pick his wardrobe.

The heart of Juno Steel is tired and ugly and worthless, and it pulses with the drumbeat of his regrets, a two-beat that once had a name.

The heart of Juno Steel has a fissure down the center that’s still raw to the touch. Its inflamed edges burn.  


Rex Glass looks at Juno Steel’s heart like it’s the most beautiful thing he’s ever seen.

It’s a ploy, Juno knows. Every time Agent Glass’s gaze flickers down to the knot of sapphire and scar tissue on Juno’s chest, his eyes wide, his lips moistened, Juno reminds himself that it has to be a ploy. Rex Glass is Dark Matters, trained to identify Juno as lonely and to prey on his deep-seated desire for something more. Besides, Dark Matters requires all agents to encase their hearts in resin and lock them away, some say buried in the Martian sands, others under the Europan seas, still others in the roiling core of the sun. Fairytales, sure, but with a core of truth. The Greater Good has no use for a squeamish agent’s tender heart.

But when they’re bound together in Cecil’s torture room of a studio, and Rex hisses at Juno to pick his pocket, Juno’s fingers stutter over a cool, sleek mass the size of a goose egg that beats in time with Rex’s alarm. 

Cecil’s cameramen capture the evening in glossy snapshots that Min ensures adorn the covers of every magazine in Hyperion. Beams of light cutting across Juno’s glower. Rex’s manicured hand resting on the small of Juno’s back like it belongs there. Cassandra’s incisors glinting as she bares her teeth. A sensational story, but nothing like what awaits Juno back at his apartment, the pale walls and cheap carpet silvering under Rex’s regard.

A splash of whiskey in a cut-glass tumbler. A murmured name. 

The heart of Juno Steel blazes as Rex draws him close. Rex kisses like he’s mapping every crack and lonely corner of Juno’s soul, like he’s spent a lifetime seeking this moment. Juno never wants him to stop.

Juno stops him.

Long after the sirens have faded and the HCPD report has crackled into static, Juno lies on his couch smoothing his fingers over the white jade stone he’d found stashed in his trench coat pocket. Its surface gleams in the moonlight.

_ Take care of my heart until I return, won’t you? After all, it’s rightfully yours.  _

_ Your better half, _

_ Peter Nureyev  _

**Author's Note:**

> I’m on tumblr at [ivyontheholodeck](https://ivyontheholodeck.tumblr.com) \- come say hi!

**Works inspired by this one:**

  * [barely beating at all](https://archiveofourown.org/works/28034187) by [extra_plus_ordinary](https://archiveofourown.org/users/extra_plus_ordinary/pseuds/extra_plus_ordinary)




End file.
